Meet the Faculty

David Quinter

• Visiting Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies

Education

• Ph.D. at Stanford University, 2006

Contact Information

Background

• Foreign Research Scholar, Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo, 2003-2006
• Stanford Institute for International Studies Dissertation Grants, 2004-2006
• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2003-2004
• Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, 2002-2003
• Stanford University Departmental Fellowship, 1997-2002

In broadest terms, my research interests center on the interweaving of narratives, rituals, and images in devotional cults and the life portraits of particular saints. Using this material as my point of departure, I explore the tensions and the play between the ideals of religious "professionals" and the social realities of the particular times and places in which those ideals are expressed.

My specific area of specialization is medieval Japanese Buddhism. My book-in-progress, provisionally titled From Charity to War: The Shingon Ritsu School and the Manjusri Cult in the Kama­kura Period, focuses on Eison (1201-90) and his disciples in connection with the cult of the bodhisattva Manjusri. Eison and the movement he founded combined propagation of the monastic and lay precepts (ritsu) with the ritual expertise of Shingon, a form of Esoteric, or Tantric, Buddhism. Shingon Ritsu monks and nuns were also deeply involved in temple restoration and social welfare projects, using the cults of specific deities to promote such projects. From Charity to War explores the strong connections between the Manjusri cult and the school’s welfare activities, based on conceptions of the “living Manjusri” manifesting in ritually empowered icons and as a beggar, leper, or other outcast (hinin). At the same time, I examine the continuities and incongruities between these charitable activities and the cult’s links to state protection and war, which included esoteric subjugation rites against the Mongols and the warrior government in Kamakura. The Shingon Ritsu Manjusri cult thus offers a rich case study for interdisciplinary analysis of religious and social change in medieval Japan as well as the interrelated themes of my broader research interests.

My second major project is a study of the influential monk Ninshō (1217-1303) and Kamakura-period Buddhism in Kama­kura. While "Kamakura Buddhism" has received wide attention in scholarship on Japanese Buddhism, little Western-language research has taken a regional approach centering on Buddhism in the Kamakura area itself, the seat of warrior rule in the medieval period. Moreover, although Ninshō was one of the most famous Japanese monks in his own time, he has not been the focus of any major study in Western-language publications. My intended second book therefore aims to correct this neglect by examining Ninshō’s activities and ideals within the broader context of religious, social, and political developments in the Kantō region.

Research Interests

• East Asian Religions
• Buddhism
• Japanese Language, Literature, and Culture
• Sainthood and Hagiography
• Icons and Rituals
• Pilgrimage
• Theory and Method in the Study of Religion

Courses Recently Taught

• Introduction to Buddhism
• Religions of the East

Publication Highlights

Articles

"Contemplating the Mañjuśrī Parinirvāna Sutra: A Translation of the Wen-shu-shih-li pan-nieh-p’an ching and Reflections on Its Provenance." Buddhist Literature 3, forthcoming.